FallFest bands bring good music but little audience

-- Bob Longmore

At FallFest this year, organizers invited local bands to perform and help raise money for charity, but the day didn’t seem to go exactly as planned. Sparse attendance and lack of cooperation from other organizations left the concert sparsely attended, unimpressive and, at times, downright awkward.

According to Amy Keenan of the Student Senate, fellow student and alumni groups didn’t want to stay until 6 p.m. when the concert was scheduled to end. As the first band was setting up, all the booths were coming down. The small children were getting their final thrills from the various inflatable toys and as the Green Mill pizza truck rolled out of the parking lot, so too did most of the FallFest attendees.

The event this year, funded as always by student activity fees, was designed to raise funds for two charities: Camp Heartland and the East Side Family Center. Keenan was disappointed with the turnout but pointed out that every dollar raised is a dollar that FallFest has never raised before.

It was a beautiful late summer day, the kind that feels like fall is just around the corner. A couple of kids did cartwheels in the grass in front of the New Main building as the second band, Secret Solution, dutifully fulfilled their set.

Despite the lackluster attendance, bands still toughed-out the disorganization. Secret Solution amateurishly fiddled around with their instruments for a good 15 minutes while waiting for the sound guys to catch up — I guess everybody involved was lacking motivation.

Secret Solution played a kind of generic radio-ready rock reminiscent of Maroon 5 or Rob Thomas after he thought that he found his groove. However, they were tight and energetic performers, and a few fans near the stage seemed to enjoy themselves; but the rest of the audience seemed to clap in between songs out of obligation and good manners.

What Secret Solution lacked in originality and sincerity, New Congress made up for with genuine sexiness and soul. They played laidback R&B that morphed into funky neo-soul jams and then drifted back into an easy groove. I would imagine, although, that their music is much better in a dark, hot club rather than on a windy, cloudy Minnesota afternoon.

Their first song "Shockwaves" from their album Everybody Gets Up features the breathy falsetto of singer Aaron Cosgrove. He has the quintessential old school soul voice: Equal parts danger and sex appeal. The band was able to jam efficiently, epitomized by sultry jazzy keyboard solos by Russ King and playful conga drum fills by Manny Fresh.

Unfortunately, New Congress’ set was marred by technical difficulties, which were out of the band’s control. Toward the end of their first song, the sound system, with a hiss and then a pop, completely failed. The band—left with whatever their amps could push out to the audience—looked around at each other and then to the sound person wondering whether to proceed or to halt. After a train-wreck ending, the band stood around for a few minutes while cables were switched around before the sound finally came back on, but only for the stage monitors. They started their second song "Can’t Be Me" without any of the front of house speakers working. About halfway through, the scattered audience were finally treated to actual live sound.

New Congress shrugged off all the difficulties and continued with some amazingly intricate songs. "Sex in the Light Years" had some parliament style keyboard sounds and "Wonder Why" was a perfectly retro break-beat song enhanced by DJ Dudley D’s tasteful record scratching and expertly timed samples.

The band has played with local rapper Desdamona, which makes perfect sense. Their music has a great Hip Hop feel to it, and I can see why any rapper would benefit from their live energy—too bad the energy floated from the stage to die limply in the large, mostly empty, lawn in front of the stage.

It’s a shame that more students weren’t present to witness New Congress and the rest of the bands perform.